We've all seen those really cool posters in bookstores and movie
theaters, the ones that appear to be one large image but are actually
made up of thousands of tiny, color-coordinated images. Remember
the poster for The Truman Show? Well, what was once a very
effective and expensive marketing tool is now an affordable software
package for your PC or Mac. PhotoMontage 2000, produced by ArcSoft,
allows you to create those intriguing photo mosaics without spending
thousands of dollars. Forget about all those hours of scanning.
With PhotoMontage 2000, you can point, click and watch your very
own photo mosaic appear in just minutes. Don't worry about where
you're going to get all those thousands of images either. The folks
at ArcSoft have taken care of everything and included a Mega Library
of over 20,000 images on the software CD. There are also plenty
of sample main images to play around with and get your feet wet.
Just remember that PhotoMontage is only for noncommercial use and
a big copyright keeps anyone outside of ArcSoft from selling these
images.

Surprisingly, the software package itself is extremely minimal.
When we opened up our evaluation package, all we found was a CD
and a flyer about ArcSoft's photo sharing web site, PhotoIsland.com
. By purchasing the software, you receive a free membership to PhotoIsland
and an extra 10 MB of storage space. PhotoIsland allows members
to create their own photo albums online and set up a guestbook where
friends and family can check in to view the albums. ArcSoft has
setup the software so that you can even upload your montage images
directly to the website and have them printed poster size--we'll
tell you more about that later.

Everything about this software is uncomplicated and easy to understand,
but there's a tiny manual included in the CD case if you have any
questions. Likewise, it's simple to install. PC users just find
the setup file and double click (or follow the Windows install wizard).
Mac users just double click the CD icon and begin setup. After only
few minutes, you're ready to go.

System Requirements

Windows system requirements:

Windows 95, 98 or NT

486 based PC (Pentium recommended)

16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended)

CD-ROM drive

VGA monitor with 16 bit color (or better) display

20 MB hard disk space (100 MB recommended for rendering montage)

Mouse

Macintosh system requirements:

Power PC

Mac OS 7.5 or higher

64 MB RAM (minimum)

High-color 16 bit monitor

Getting Started

Once you've installed the software, it takes no time
at all to get going and produce some truly unique images. After
launching the software, the main screen pops up with a few options
and a main image display area.

The Get Photo button takes you to the Get Photo screen,
where you can select your main image from the ArcSoft CD or pull
up one of your own images. Just beneath that is the Edit Photo button,
which allows you to crop images and adjust the brightness and contrast.
The Build Montage button takes you to the Build screen and allows
you to set up how the montage will be done. The bottom three buttons
on the main screen are the Output options, which allow you to Save
As, Print or go to Cool Stuff. Cool Stuff opens the Special Montage
Services screen which shows you some program add-ons such as the
poster printing service, a library of micro-image collections and
various other digital imaging tricks (we'll go into these a little
later). All of the Cool Stuff services utilize your online web browser
to contact PhotoIsland.com. The remaining buttons on the main screen
are the View options, located directly beneath the main image display
area. The Photo button allows you to view the original photo after
the montage has been performed. The Montage button goes back to
the montage image and the Detail button allows you to scroll around
within the image and look at details of certain areas.

Once you've clicked the Get Photo button on the main
screen, the Get Photo screen comes up. Here, a selection of ArcSoft's
demo photos is displayed on the left side of the screen in an Album.
Under the Create section, you have the option of creating a new
album with your own images by clicking the New Album button. These
photo albums can contain up to 200 thumbnail images each. The album
title window holds the list of available albums to choose from.
Clicking on the down arrow expands the list to full view. The Add
Photo button pulls up a Windows dialog box where you can select
images to put into your customized album. The Acquire button lets
you acquire images from a digital camera or any other TWAIN compatible
source. Just beneath that is the Delete button, which allows you
to delete unwanted images from the photo album. Finally, at the
very bottom left of the screen are the Okay and Cancel buttons.
Click Okay once you've selected an image and you will be returned
to the main screen with the selected image in the main image display
area. Clicking Cancel also returns you to the main screen but without
a main image.

Once you've selected an image and returned to the main screen, you can
either perform some minor image editing or start building your montage
straight away. If you need to edit a little, clicking the Edit button
pulls up the Edit screen where you can adjust the brightness and contrast
or crop the image. The top box is the Crop Aspect Ratio and lets you choose
either Freehand (where you can manually crop the image) or select from
a list of predetermined aspect ratios. Clicking the arrow button cycles
through all the available options. Both the Brightness and Contrast scales
have clickable plus and minus buttons that alter their values. Once you've
completed your editing, you can save the image with the Save As button
or click Okay or Cancel to return to the main screen. Remember that you
might want to save your edited photo under a different name so that you
always have a clean copy of the original.

Now you're ready to create the photo mosaic. Clicking on
the Build Montage button from the main screen takes you to the Build screen,
which is the most complicated that this program ever gets. The hardest
part is making the decisions. On the left side of the screen is the CD
Collections menu, which displays the available image collections to create
your masterpiece. You can select an unlimited number of collections for
the program to use in creating the mosaic. The number of pictures pulled
from each collection is dependent on how you rate them. (Ratings are from
one to three checkmarks - one check mark has the lowest priority and three
checkmarks are the highest priority.) Below that is the My Collection
menu, which displays any available collections you may have created with
your own images. You can include up to five selections from this menu
and the same checkmark priority rating system applies. The Setup button
directly beneath the My Collection menu lets you set up your personal
micro image collections (this actually pulls up another screen where you
can add or delete albums). Beneath the My Collection menu is the Allow
Color Variation box, which, if checked, tells PhotoMontage to automatically
adjust the color of each micro-image to perfectly match the original color
of the main photo, which produces really nice, accurate results.

Next, select the Micro Image Count, which allows you to set how many
micro images will be used. Choices range from 600 to 2,000. The higher
the number of images, the more detailed the final mosaic will be. The
Micro Image Size lets you select the overall size of the micro images.
The larger the size, the larger the final print can be (and the better
the image clarity). Remember that larger size means longer download times
and overall file sizes. The Output Size information box lets you know
what the final image size will be, depending on the Micro Image Count
and the Micro Image Size selections you've made.

Also on the Build screen, you have the option of selecting the micro
image pattern. The Aligned choice sets up images in columns while the
Offset choice stacks them like bricks. The Micro Image Repetition box
lets you select whether or not the images repeat and how they do it. In
addition to Never Repeat, you can set them to Limited Repeat, where images
can be used more than once but only if they are the best matches, or you
can choose Unlimited Repeat, where a micro image can be used as many times
as needed. The Grid & Border menu lets you add gridlines or place
a border around the image (gridlines make little black dividing lines
between the micro images and the border is a simple black one). Once you've
set the micro image options, you can designate a caption in the Caption
box and then set the placement of it in the Caption Position box. You
can also select the desired font.

At the very bottom of the Build screen, you can add a little fun to your
final image by including a Hidden Treasure or a Signature. The Hidden
Treasure puts a selected image at a random location in the mosaic and
the Signature puts a selected image at the bottom right corner of the
mosaic. To set specific images as Hidden Treasures or Signatures, simply
click on the treasure chest or on the ArcSoft signature box and take it
from there. PC users can also set images from the main screen by right
clicking on the desired thumbnail in the album and choosing Set Image
as Treasure or Set Image as Signature. Once you've made all these selections,
click Okay to set them into motion. Or, if you've changed your mind, click
Cancel.

Now for the fun part. Clicking Okay in the Build screen brings you back
off in the main screen. You'll see the main image turned to what looks
like a color film negative and then the tiny micro images will appear
one by one until the entire mosaic is complete.

The Detail button lets you zoom in for a close up look at various details
in your image. You can also switch back and forth between the actual image
and the completed montage for comparisons. Be sure to save the image and
click the Print button to print out a copy. A nice feature of this software
is that you can save files as BMP, TIF, JPG, GIF, PCX, TGA and FlashPix
files.

As we mentioned earlier, you can send your image off to
ArcSoft and have a large poster printed (just click the Cool Stuff button
from the main screen). At the time of this review (February 2000), the
large, 36 inch poster costs only $49.95 and the standard, 20 inch poster
costs $24.95. One of the newest features on PhotoIsland.com is an offer
to have your own picture or image made up of micro images from your favorite
movies. The web site just says "coming soon" on this one, so
you'll have to keep checking back. You can also purchase additional micro
image CD collections from the website with different themes like sports,
animals, nature, etc.

So what does this fancy software cost? Earlier versions of PhotoMontage
sold for about $99.95, but now you can pick up the full 2000 version for
just $39.95. Not too bad when you think of the millions of uses for these
mosaics. They're perfect for all those photos that you just don't know
what to do with and they make great greeting cards, calendars, etc. We
had a lot of fun with this product and we think you will too.

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